Iomega has introduced its second-generation StorCenter ix2-200, aimed at the 'prosumer' home user and which offers a wealth of features ranging from a BitTorrent client and remote access to surveillance camera support.
Iomega StorCenter ix2 Iomega's StorCenter ix2-200
While most other Network Attached Storage (Nas) …

That is roughly the same as the Synology and this iOmega box prior to disks. Total capacity - 6 disks, expandable to a max of 14 subject to using additional 5-3 enclosures for the 5" slots (17£ per 4 disk from Scan and 10£ per 4 port SATA card from LinItx). Chassis cost per disk - 3 times lower, dropping to more than 4 times lower as number of disks goes up. It looks as good if not better and it is not telling me which dynDNS client I am to use. It also supports JBOD, RAID0,1,5,6 and 10 not just RAID 1.

As most iOmega boxes this is not a box for the proSumer or powerUser it is for the powerLuser. They should have made it in white so it fits their usual audience.

That assumes you have the skills and the space.

That assumes you know how to set all of that up.

That iCute case is about 10 times the size of this unit (its smaller than a toaster). As to price you need to add on 2x2TB disks and your total comes to £356 while these retail at £400. The 2TB version would set you back 225 while your solution would be 156 + 2x70? = £296

Add to that these units are whisper quiet and use a fraction of the power and it looks a resonable solution for home backup and/or media storage. Sure if you need massively more storage and other facilities your solution is cheaper but its not the same target market.

Sounds good, but ...

Works for me.

I bought the 2TB version from Dabs a couple of weeks ago, cost me £220 which seemed like good value to me. I'm very happy with it, it feels faster and wakes up quicker than my DLink dns-323. It also supports iscsi which works quite nicely with Windows 7.

Tin foil hat?

Why is it considered tin foil hat territory to want RAID-1 protection?

It would also be useful to know if the I/O throughput tests are single or multi-threaded. A well implemented RAID-1 setup can make use of both devices for read which only shows up on multi-threaded tests (there are two targets for reads which can work in parallel). Not all RAID-1 devices will act that way.

Iomega don't have a good record as far as I'm conceerned

I've got an older storecenter (320GB) and it's the biggest waste of money of all IT stuff I've bought.

The firmware is awfull. It has very low transfers rates, takes a long time to respond, drops of the network for no reason and most annoying at all, there is no backup battery for things like the date, so if the power goes off it resets to 1 jan 2036, and the USB printer server is unusable. After that I'd never buy another iomega product again.

network

Reasonable hardware, pathetic software, disastrous support

I bought one of these about 3 months ago, to use as a backup server for 1 Linux desktop (Fedora), I iMac and 1 Windows Vista laptop. It took several weeks to get it all configured because the included plug-and-pray management software simply doesn't work on *any* of the above platforms. I had to sniff the net for the box's IP address and then configure using a browser in each case. Getting TimeMachine working was head-bangingly difficult though I eventually managed it.

The Iomega support forums are far and away the worst I have ever seen for any commercial product and an order of magnitude worse than those I use for free software. You register to ask a question, send the question, and then wait several days to be told that YOUR QUESTION HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. WTF? And this is for a *user* support forum, not to get direct support from Iomega. To get that you have to make a phone-call, which in my case would mean an international call. No thanks. Have these people never heard of email?

The upside is that the box so far hasn't failed. It just sits there and makes grumbling noises from time to time when copying stuff. A huge disadvantage from my point of view is that even though it's a Linux system you can't ssh into it, so you're stuck with what the (limited and clunky) web interface gives you.

I won't be buying another one of these.

BTW, nearly every tech review of the thing seems just to spout the manufacturer's brochure. Once again, WTF?